POWAY SCHOOLS CHIEF GETS PACT, $63K RAISE

POWAY 
The Poway Unified school board Wednesday night awarded Superintendent John Collins a new three-year contract with a $63,000 raise in base pay — a pact the district says will actually save money.

The five-member board voted to increase Collins’ base pay from $235,000 to $297,735 beginning July 1, while also taking away an option he had to cash out some retirement benefits, a perk worth more than $70,000 this year.

The new contract will save the 35,500-student district more than $16,000 compared to what Collins would have received next year under the terms of his current contract, staff said. Collins will keep his long-term service credit, $2,500 graduate degree stipend and continue to receive the same raises as other managers.

Opponents of the new contract chided Collins for his oversight of the 2011 capital appreciation bond deal that gave the district $105 million for construction but will cost taxpayers more than $981 million to repay by 2051, with no option to pay off the debt early. The deal riled the community and inspired school bond reform legislation signed last year that now limits bond debt service to four times the principal, maturity dates to 25 years and bond companies must allow districts to pay off longer-term debt early without penalty.

Collins, 60, has worked in the district 25 years and is in his fourth school year as superintendent.